By Reno Laser Dentistry
December 26, 2011
Category: Dental Implants

The mouth plays a key role in digestion with the help of the teeth, necessary for chewing (mastication); teeth tear, grind, and cut up food in order to swallow. An adult usually has 32 teeth in his or her mouth. Our teeth consist of incisors, canines, molars and premolars. So why is oral hygiene so important? Let’s just think of our teeth like a Roman arch. Each brick in the arch has pressure from the bricks on both sides. The keystone is the last brick added to an arch to stabilize all the other bricks. Our dental arches are similar in many ways. If a tooth is lost the teeth on either side and the tooth above can shift and drift, including growing longer into the space where the tooth is missing. Shifting creates gaps where more food can be trapped which can lead to tooth decay and gum disease. Also the tooth that grows into the space can only fit in that one place which changes the bite. This can create stress and pain in the teeth and TMJ (jaw joint) and muscles of the jaws which can contribute to muscle-tension headaches and migraines. Contact Dr. McElhinney’s office for more information his dental staff is very knowledgeable and professional.

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